Thank My Lucky Stars - Before and After

[Tikibirds]

About a month or so ago - curtsey of Petco's awsome fish care:





A few days later:



NOW:

[mursey]

Oh my god! Is that blue water your test from the Petco water? I have never thought to do this but I wish I did! I change my water at home as soon as it's not the nice yellow in the Freshwater Aquarium Master Test Kit. I have never seen water test like that .. WOW.

I just took this dude home this week from Petco. I hope his tail grows back or he stops biting .. whatever the case.

[Tikibirds]

Yup, that was his ammonia reading from the petco water. I have seen it turn dark green before a few times but this is the 1st time I seen it turn blue. I'm surprised he was even alive and is doing so well. I like to test their cup water because if the ammonia is really bad, I will use a syringe to suck out the old water and replace with new water more slowly then I normally acclimate new fish. I don't want to give them 0 ammonia water after being in an 11 or whatever blue is -too quickly - such a drastic change right away can do more damage then good.

do you have a pic? I can usually tell if its fin rot or bitting.

[CandiceMM]

WOW (O.O) that is horrible! I have been wondering this, all Petco's have a fish specialist for the big community tanks right?? Why can't they have a Betta expert that goes every day specifically for the Betta's. It wouldn't take long to clean the cups and care for them. Makes no sense why a Betta fish is always passed up!

[mursey]

I still am shocked by how bad that water is. I really wish I tested all the cups I got my fish in just out of curiosity.
Here are the pics I have of the guy I took home a couple days ago. FYI this is a 1-gallon jar that is only used for temporary hospital tanks or water changes, I do not intend to keep him in a jar.

[Tikibirds]

That does not look like fin bitting to me. Normally, fin bitting kinda makes them look like crowntails. I am going to say either ammonia burned his fins off or he had fin rot. His fins will grow back but the best thing is warm water and some stress coat or krodon's fish protector. Both are good for fins but stress cot can also be used as a conditioner. He could be bitting, bit normally its not so uniform.

This guy was a halfmoon that was a chronic bitter and you can see what I mean about the crowntail look

[ehh]

Originally Posted by mursey

Oh my god! Is that blue water your test from the Petco water? I have never thought to do this but I wish I did! I change my water at home as soon as it's not the nice yellow in the Freshwater Aquarium Master Test Kit. I have never seen water test like that .. WOW.

I just took this dude home this week from Petco. I hope his tail grows back or he stops biting .. whatever the case.

haha i work at a petsmart like store and we test peoples water for them. water like that is a norm haha.

what a turn around for that fish though!! good job.

[Tikibirds]

one time I tried to save a VT from petco but he died before I could get him out of the cup. I took a picture and printed out the ammonia test and showed it to the people at petco. The employee gave me ammino lock. I was like NO YOU IDIOT! This was from the water in his cup from here all I wanted was to get a replacement fish

[mursey]

Hey thanks for the info on my guy from petco. I am not 100% sure, but it sort of looks like maybe his fins already are showing a teeny bit of improvement. I do have Stress Coat, I just bought it last week. Do I use Stress Coat instead of Seachem Prime or do I use both?

I do see what you mean with your photo of a tail biter.

Ehh, that's crazy about the water. I change my water whenever it tests the second color on my chart, in other words, if it tests .25 I change it immediately! i don't understand how I still have problems and some people I know keep unfiltered gallon or 1/2 gallon bowls and their betta has never gotten sick. WTF? I know someone like that who even forgets to feed it for weeks sometimes .. and it seems their fish has been fine for 2 years, meanwhile I have had 2 platies die already, and now my Purplius is sick. Or maybe the platies made everyone sick even though I separated them and medicated them, sometimes animals seem to recover and secretly are still spreading disease. Who knows!